Norman Osborn
: "The one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying. In spite of everything you've done for them, eventually, they will hate you." : ―The Green Goblin Norman Osborn is the main antagonist of the Spider-Man ''trilogy. A fictional super villain character who appears in the Marvel comic books, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. The first antagonist of the trilogy, Norman Osborn was portrayed by Willem Dafoe in the first film and featured in all three films in the Raimi Spider-Man Trilogy. Biography Background Norman Osborn was a rich industrialist and the founder of Oscorp, which was working towards winning a contract with the military to supply weapons. He has a single son, Harry and a deceased wife. Spider-Man Norman greatly appreciates Harry's best friend, Peter Parker, who had scientific aptitude, and was impressed with Peter's knowledge with his work, causing Harry's jealousy. Meanwhile, General Slocum of the United States Army visits Oscorp to see the results of their new super soldier formula. When one of Norman's top scientists, Dr. Stromm warns him the formula is unstable, General Slocum threatens to pull all of the military's funding from Oscorp. Later that night, Norman exposes himself to the formula as its first human trial, gains superhuman strength and agility but is driven partially insane which he kills Stromm and steals two other Oscorp inventions, an exoskeleton suit and a jet glider. Another night, Slocum visits Quest Aerospace, Oscorp's chief competitor, to view their progress towards the contract. While viewing a demonstration of a new battlesuit, a menacing figure wearing the stolen Oscorp exoskeleton and riding the jet glider attacks a weapons test at Quest Aerospace. Their prototype is destroyed and General Slocum is killed. Norman basks in his company's eventual success: Quest has to reorganize after the debacle that killed Slocum, Oscorp has been given more government contracts and the company's stock is soaring. He allows Harry and Peter to be roommates in a loft he got for them. He is crestfallen to learn the Board of Directors has chosen this moment to accept a buyout offer from Quest and he would lose his job. His insane aggression manifests itself in a split personality: the driven yet confused Norman, and the murderous, scheming villain who will soon become known as "The Green Goblin". As The Green Goblin, he attacks Oscorp's annual Unity Day street fair and kills the Board of Directors to prevent the sell out. Then, Spider-man fights off The Green Goblin and saves the day. Norman's evil side convinces him that he and Spider-Man should work together as partners. He attacks ''The Daily Bugle offices, threatening J. Jonah Jameson to tell him who took Spider-Man's photo's, though Jameson refused. Spider-Man arrives and The Green Goblin uses a gas to render Spider-Man unconscious, causing the human web-slinger to fall but The Goblin catches him and takes him to a nearby New York building. The Green Goblin offers Spider-Man a chance of partnership then leaves, giving Spider-Man a few days to think over his offer of partnership. He did warn Spider-Man the city will eventually turn against him, and that they should rule it together. Goblin stood corrected as The Daily Bugle did say Spider-Man was a criminal and wanted him arrested. battles Norman Osborn.]] A few days later, on Thanksgiving, The Green Goblin stages a fire in an apartment building to get an answer from Spider-Man. Spider-Man refuses to join with Goblin, and the two fight. They are evenly matched although Goblin uses his razor bats and gains a slight advantage. Spider-Man received a bad cut on his arm from one of razor bats. Despite the injury, Spider-Man gets the upper hand in hand-to-hand combat before escaping due to Goblin being too strong, leaving Goblin in disappointment from Spider-Man's choice. As Norman and Peter respectively, The Green Goblin and Spider-Man are due at Peter and Harry's loft for Thanksgiving dinner. They each race back separately. When Peter arrives to dinner with fresh blood from the cut on his sleeve, Norman then realizes that Peter is Spider-Man and hastily leaves. On his way out, he insults Harry's girlfriend Mary Jane and she leaves angrily too, hurt that Harry didn't defend her after what Norman had said. Before his plan to finish Spider-Man, Norman contemplates with Goblin saying he can't go through with it but the Goblin says that Spider-Man has to be stopped. The Goblin has a plan to attack Spider-Man's loved ones and easily distract him and defeat him. That night, The Green Goblin attacks Aunt May at her home, sending her to the hospital. After learning from Harry, who broke up with Mary Jane, that Peter loves her more than anything, the Green Goblin then decides to strike at Spider-Man through her. He kidnaps Mary Jane from her home, then sabotages a trolley car along the Roosevelt Bridge. Spider-Man arrives and The Green Goblin gives him the choice of saving either Mary Jane or the trolley car, then drops them both from the bridge. However, Spider-man manages to save both, with assistance from a passing barge and pedestrians on the bridge who pelt The Green Goblin with debris and delay him from his attempts to kill Spider-Man. Now furious, Goblin grabs Spider-Man using a cable cord and throws him into an abandoned Smallpox hospital so no one will interfere. After Spider-Man crashes through the building, The Green Goblin throws a pumpkin bomb into the building, severely injuring and weakening him. After hopping off his glider he reels his yellow shades back and looks at his struggling adversary trying to recover with his identity revealed from the ripped mask. The Goblin shows pity on Spider-Man for betraying his proposal. With Spider-Man injured, This gives The Green Goblin a chance to brutally beat Spider-Man, with him utilizing strength and agility he's easily able to fight and not even get so much as a scratch without needing weapons or bombs. Green Goblin nearly wins when he taunts how he will finish off Mary Jane with a painful and slow death. The goblin draws a shiny green trident and tries to use it on Spider-Man they each struggle but what Goblin said about M.J enraged Spider-Man and regains his strength, stamina, and senses and viciously beats The Green Goblin into submission included by pulling a nearby brick wall on top him, but stops after Norman takes off his Goblin mask. Norman reasons with Peter that it was the serum and the evil side of him that made him turn to crime. The Green Goblin is controlling his jet glider and attempts to stab Spider-Man with it, but he leaps out of the way, since his spider-senses has been regained, just before it strikes. Norman is impaled and killed as a result; Before death he begs Peter not to tell Harry of his misdeeds, while Peter is left depressed due to losing a father figure and Harry's father. Spider-Man takes Norman's body back to his penthouse apartment. He returns the Goblin gear back to Norman's secret lair. He places his body on a sofa, but Harry sees them and thus blames Spider-Man for Norman's death. At his father's funeral, he vows revenge and thanks Peter for being such a great friend. Post Mortem Spider-Man 2 After Spider-Man's defeat of Green Goblin, Peter's true identity as Spider-Man is revealed to Harry. Subsequently Norman appears in a hallucination in a mirror to Harry, demanding him to seek vengeance against Peter in a similar fashion to how King Hamlet haunted his son to avenge him in Shakespeare's play. Harry refuses leading to Norman calling him weak. Enraged, Harry broke the mirror, revealing the secret Goblin lair, and therefore his father's true identity. Spider-Man 3 Months later, Norman's hallucination returns to encourage his son to again destroy Spider-Man. This time Harry acts on his father's words and dons the Oscorp gear and glider as "The New Goblin" and attacks Peter, but is knocked out and suffers from immediate memory loss, forgetting his promise to Norman for revenge. In time, Harry has flashbacks and remembers Peter's alter-ego. He again sees his father in the mirror, telling him this time to attack Peter's heart. He threatens Mary Jane and blackmails her into breaking up with Peter, then lies that he was the one she dumped him for. Later, Peter attacks Harry and boasted of how Norman never truly loved Harry. The Osborn's butler later tells Harry that Spider-Man was not to blame for his father's death and that the wounds were from his own glider. He subsequently drops his father's vendetta, then aids Peter against The Sandman and Venom at the cost of his own life. Before he dies, he forgave Peter for Norman's death. Personality and Traits Norman Osborn is a confident, appealing, and full of integrity. While a caring dad to Harry, somehow, he completely ignores him at times and is incredibly always devoted to Oscorp. Even though Harry apathetically thinks that Norman does anything only for himself, Norman shows that despite him being shallow and a bit heartless, he really does love his son. He only wishes for him to walk in his footsteps which he does way later on. Harry tells his father about MJ and Peter's intimacy, and Norman apologizing for neglecting Harry and promising to be better that they finally get over their differences. The Green Goblin is unlike Norman's persona, instead, it has a mind and will of its own. The origin points to the chemical drug that Norman took, which unknowingly sprung up the malicious, delusional side of him. Signs of Goblin controlling Norman while in public; such as insulting Aunt May, bashing Mary Jane, and even causing terror to his enemies or New York's lowly bystanders. In private, Norman was brainwashed by the Goblin in order to cause harm and destruction to those he thinks they deserve it, creating danger for New York. Even though Spider-Man's a bit disbelieving, Norman understands what monster he created. Just as the Goblin silently tries to kill him, Spider-Man quickly jumps out of the way when the scythe-like blades of Goblin's glider come at him almost, but unfortunately impale Norman and the Goblin, showing complete regret towards Peter and promised him to protect his son so that he'll never know his secret. Abilities and Equipment The Green Goblin pilots a high-tech jet glider, armed with seeking missiles and machine guns. His suit consists of green armor that cybernetic-ally connects him to his glider and weapons. He is seen using three varieties of his signature "Pumpkin Bombs": one which is a simple explosive; one that releases a bright, radioactive flash which reduces people to skeletons; and one that splits into flying, razor-bat blades. Rather than carrying a shoulder "bag of tricks", the weapons are contained in the glider and are ejected individually out of their storage compartment when desired. His suit is armed with knockout gas that is released from the wrists. His suit is also linked to the Goblin Glider, allowing him to control it remotely. Green goblin has superhuman strength capable of beating Spider-Man in battle using his hand to hand combat (though Spider-Man was hurt) he can also break Spider-Mans web which is like metal really easily. He even shows strength when he punches a wall when Spider-Man ducks in the final battle and he busted the wall completely showing his Strength of his blows. He has a shiny trident specifically to kill Spider-Man. His armor protects him from majority of injuries so he 's barely being hurt or damaged from fighting unlike Spider-Man. It's only damaged when Spider-Man brings down a brick wall which made his suit finally experience dents and scratches. Trivia * The Green Goblin appeared in the entire trilogy, usually by the form of an illusion by Norman Osborn in the second and third film. * Nicholas Cage, John Travolta, John Malkovich and Robert De Niro were considered for the role of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin before Dafoe was cast. * Norman Osborn was the first villain in the Spider-Man series to be killed on screen, as well as the first villain death. Category:Males Category:Characters Category:Deceased Category:Traitors Category:Supervillains Category:Masterminds Category:Antagonists Category:Osborn Family